Luca Marinelli responds to those who criticize him for saying that “playing Benito Mussolini was emotionally complex” in the Sky series ‘M – Son of the Century’. “I have read the criticisms, naturally they are displeased – he told Serena Bortone on ‘5 in Condotta’ on Rai Radio 2 – because I don’t think I have said anything bad or dramatic. I simply spoke about an emotion of mine, because I think it’s important to share your emotions. It certainly also depends on the fact that he is a real character, who ruined a country. It was a terrible time, in which people were deprived of their dreams and freedom.”
Among those who had criticized him for his statements was also Vittorio Feltri who, speaking to Radio Libertà, had said: “Luca Marinelli started whining because he is distraught, shocked by the pain of having played Mussolini, but we don’t understand why : for an actor to play Mussolini or an angel from heaven is the same, he must act.”
The actor, protagonist of the new Sky drama based on the bestselling novel of the same name by the Antonio Scurati Strega Prize, added: “Playing Benito Mussolini is like having seen the person you don’t want to be. A wonderful artistic journey, humanly and ethically devastating for me “. “Why is Mussolini still fascinating for someone? I don’t know, because for me he never was. It’s a story that happened 100 years ago – ”, Marinelli continued – that one should have learned, digested, and made a point. of view both as a person and as a country but we have not yet succeeded. If someone really began to understand what fascism is they could never become fascist today”.
The actor continued: “In Mussolini there was a part of a great entertainer when he found himself holding rallies inside theaters or squares, and he understood that he was speaking directly to people’s stomachs by giving simple, empty, direct answers. It was the pioneer of populism that we still have today. For him, empathy was a strong tool, but in his case it was full of deception, simply to attract people to him, tools and votes devastated with this toxic masculinity of his his violence, even the female world around him. For example Margherita Sarfatti, who was a great intellectual who took him under her protective wing, was also deceived and betrayed, and had to flee due to the racial laws”.
When asked what personally scares Marinelli, the actor replied: “There is a beautiful answer from Jude Law: fascist homo sapiens.” Do any still exist? “We see them everywhere, we also saw the Roman greetings the day before yesterday”. “It was wonderful to show ‘M’ to the students, I was very moved, as we grow up we forget how difficult it is to be young men and women, but how beautiful it is to see them in the midst of these difficulties being so present in life.”
